Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1887-11-29

CHICAGO's BLACK SATURDAY.
| Half an Hour Of Darkness 1t Midday
and Gas Lights Necessary.
| THE PHENOMENON DUE TO SMOKE FROM FOREST Y1REs
MIXED WITH DENSE LAKE FoG-PERn OF STEAM
KRs-cuRIoUs FREAKS or WILLS AND SPRINGS
darkness like that OF Egypt fell on Chicago
about O'Clock Saturday, and scared timid folk
Into the belief that the end OF the world had come
special from Chicago to the New York World
says: 1t was about dark as It is ordinarily at 6
O'Clock In the morning at this time OF year. The
town seemed enveloped IN thick masses Of inky
vapor and the air was stagnant and very humid.
Gas had TO be lighted In many places where people
were at work or else labor was suspended until the
darkness passed, which 1t did in about half an
hour. Oid-timers, who remember the weather
away back In 1887, or pretend to, claimed that
chicago had never experienced such fog For
several Gays the air has been full OF smoke from
forest fires, and this united with the dense and
unusual fog, made all the trouble. The signal
,n,n,P eople sald tnat there was nothing por-
tentous In the phenomenon. cloud had merely
settled upon the city.
A sudden change in the weather at night and
the coming OF q Manitabo blizzard this morning
nave prevented any recurrence OF the phenome-
non, but people have not left on wondering about
tne queer darkness In truth, the city was up
among the clouds, or rather, the clouds were down
nomenon that has few precedents in weather
|
could well be. When the clouds first descended
In the morning they were not unlike Lake Michi-
gan IogsI0niy, perhaps triile wetter and denser
tendencies that lake fogs have. and most people
thought they were nothing but fogs
sn,e 81 ane, idsnt;s e ipcal weather ooseiver was
scendlng on US this morning, and have watched
them closely all day" sait the sergeant. .They
settled over the town like pail A fog never de-
sends for II has its origin In the lake generally,
ana t travels straight line through the air with
from the forest fires In Wisconsin, which has been
hanging over this region FOR a week. That made
the darkness all the worse; in fact either alone
would not have produced any very astonishing
appearance"
The burning Of gaslights indoors continued all
day. ont ON the lake the gloom was simply i'm
penetrable. lookout stationed on the bridge OF
steamer could not see her bows, and he had to
to avoid the beach or beiated craft. There was a
little Incident OF Crosse Point about noon that
serves 10 Illustrate how impenetrable the atmos-
phere was. The big tug MOrfOrd was working
slowly south toward the harbOr and the City OF
New York was coming in the opposite direction.
as she Two boats approached each other their sig,
they finally got so close together that they were
brought TO a standstill. Neither captain dared 10
other and was not willing to risk collision. The
boats drffted so close together finally that CONVEX
sation between the sailors was distinctly audible
aboard both. Then the captains hailed each other
and chatted for upward OF ten minutes about their
bearings They talked in an ordinary conversa-
tional tone, but neither could see the other nor
could they see each others vessel Even inside the
harbor there were times when fog signals had to
oe useo Dy tug captains, especially when they
were approaching bridge draws or rounding sharp
bends.
The heavy rain which set in at 10 O'Clock last
night extinguished the forest fires In Wisconsin
and ended the remarkable drought that has pre-
vailed so long in Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, and
parts OF Iowa Many places have not experienced
a good soaking rain before in many months There
water
localities. Wells have gone dry, springs have
ceased TO flow, and streams have disappeared en-
tirely. The farmers have been compelled, In many
cases, to haul water dozen miles or more to keep
their stock alive. Such a scarcity OF water has
companied by many strange phenomena. While
the drought was at its worst an old well near
Nation suddenly filled almost TO the top, and is
now supplying the Illinois Central Company with
suf11cient TO haul away. well 40 feet Deep dry
and abandoned all summer near Fisher, Is miles
from here, suddenly nlled with water TO within
3 feet OF the surface. The Sangamon River at a
point In the same neighborhOod, was perfectly
dry, but all at once began TO run with water and
without drop OF rain In the country.
The strange spring which burst out on George
Rtsing'S farm, near Rising Station, five miles
from Champaign, few days since, astonishing
water, which, damned up, has formed a great
reservoir. and supplies the neighborhood For a
week smoky, murky atmosphere has hung over
all this part OF the country, and every day the
suffering people expected rain that did not fall.
Factories were obliged TO close for lack OF water
i
many places without success In some OF the
worst affiicted counties cattle died for want OF
water. Prayer-meetings for rain have been neld
regularly for weeks In many OF the towns. 1t Is
almost impossible 10 exaggerate the amount Of
suffering there has been, the Joy that Is felt at
last nights rain Dispatches from Indiana say
that the rain has been falling there for forty
hours and is the first good rain in six months
Railroads there had been obliged to haul water In
tanks for many miles in order to have supplies in
the drought-affiicted regions for their engines
The farmers whose crops were failure last season
are greatly reJOiced.
The most OF the forest fires in Wisconsin were in
Clark County, where the pine timber was as dry
as finder from the long-cOntinued drought, and a
large area was burned over. Trains that ran
through the fire came out blistered and blackened.
The locomotive engineers had their whiskerS and
eyebrows singed, and the cars were nlled with
smoke 50 that passengers were almost SuffOcated.
Great herds or bear, deer, and wolves were driven
out OF the woods by the fire and took refuge on
the clearings. The loss will be very great There
have also been great fires In tine dry forests OF
southern Illinois and Indiana resulting from the
long drought. The rain has put them all out
American Cowboy vs.. English Jockey.
From the London Standard
AT the Agricultural Hall last night CNovember
15) the main feature OF the "Worlds Athletic Car
nival' was mile riding match between Marve
Beardsley, noted express rider before the Ameri-
can continent was girdled with iron roads. and j.
Rellew, young English jockey Of great promise.
at present serving his apprenticeship TO Mr. C..
Wood Each man used i've horses, changing at
Will, anu tGS was run OU the Tan Track, seven
laps TO the mile Beardsley was one OF the horse
men In the recent contest and this OF course gave
him familiarity with the track. which stood him
In good stead as against bis antagonist: but this
was minor advantage compared with his i'm
mense superiority in what may be termed the
equine gymnastics practsed by the cowboys OF the
West In Imitation OF the red men OF the prairies
Marve Beardsley won the match solely by his
capacity for renounting quickly, the sort Of work
Tor which, or course, an Englishman has no special
training Jumping from one horse at bound he
rushed at his new mount, near or on side ndffer-
emily, caught hold OF the bride and saddle, and
starting IL at gallop, scrambled into the saddle
while going at full speed with ease and agility.
Young Rellew, who rides admirably might safely
De backed against Beardsey In a straight-on dis
lance FACE, from the capacity he exhibited OF
nursing and getting the best out OF his mount:
Out Tor RAPIDLY changing from one horse TO
another ne was, as compared with his rival,
simply nowhere.
Moreover, once his bride broke and he was
thrown, and very narrowly escaped being tram
pied on. He was up, however like lightning
rushed back quarter lap for a fresh horse and
was on In grand style before all the spectators
were aware OF what had occurred. This lost him
q lap, while another lap was lost from Marye
Beardsley's splendid agility in remounting This
loss was effected early in the race after Rellew
had led for short time, but as between two and
three laps the English Jockey again and again
caught and passed Beardsley, though the track
was barely wide enough TO accomplish the feat
and, though he was beaten he certainly lost no
credit by his defeat. Beardsley ultimately won
by Two laps and one length.
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